thought i'd post this so others may learn from my bonehead mistakes. recently replaced the cylinder head gasket on my 79 242 gt w/b21f. while it was off i took it in and had it machined cleaned and tested. i brought it home and threw it back in there. the sucker started leaking like a siv not a week later. i think because there was oil still in the head from the cleaning and it got all over the new gasket before i torqued it down. DOH! no body at the machine shop bothered telling me that i needed to drain it before i re-installed it, i guess i should have known. going to have to take it off and do it again, hooray! im going to make sure that sucker is bone dry before it goes back in. patience definitely is key but hard to tap when your everyday driver is in a thousand pieces on your driveway.
all the best
s